our own steve liesman is joining us now with more details from headquarters. and, steve, you know, firstly, we should make it clear to people, the incident in question has to do with, i believe, with the household survey, one of two surveys involved in producing this monthly report. >> reporter: right. very quickly, i want to tell you, we have a statement from the inspector general of the department of commerce, saying we are aware of the media reports. and evaluating what actions may be warranted. the data show a huge spike in the number of employed in the household survey, and a decline in the unemployed in the months leading up to -- you can see there -- that's november, the end there, november 2012 election, as kelly said, the household one of two surveys conducted monthly. the survey, in which data gathers from the census bureau, they contact 60,000 homes nationwide on behalf of the bls. that's used to calculate the unemployment rate. the separate payroll survey used to measure job growth, that data comes from employers themselves right to the bls. so it